My poker odyssey (VERY long)

[scooby]

After reading Gabe's story, I thought I'd continue in the autobiographical mode, since I'm about to cash out and pretty much leave the poker world. This is quite long, so you might want to just skim it and read the conclusion.

The story starts when I was 22 (in 2002) and finishing up with my physics degree in college. I had gone through some tough personal times with a close friend committing suicide, and was trying to determine what I wanted to do with my life, and decided to teach high school. This had the distinct problem that I was doomed to never really make any money, but I figured I'd work something out.

A few weeks after making this decision, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go down to Foxwoods with him. I was very scared about it, since I had only played nickel dime poker before, but asked how much to bring (160 bucks was the answer) and bought in at the 2/4 table. I was playing astoundingly tight, I remember...the first hand I came in on was posting on the cutoff. I had no idea what posting meant, but the dealer explained it to me slowly while everyone laughed. I was dealt 44 in a 6way limped pot and tried to fold it before the dealer said I didn't have to pay anything to see the flop. A little later I had made a boat with something like JJ J9543 board, and got checkraised on the river. I was scared he might have the royal flush and only called. I was a 22 year old rock.

I got home, up about 50 bucks, very excited. I went down a few weekends later and won another 80 bucks or so, but then lost almost my whole buyin the third time. I remember raising out of the big blind with pocket kings and three limpers folding, all sure that someone as tight as me must have had aces. At that point I was smart enough to figure out that I should loosen up, but then school started and I didn't really have time to go down to play at the woods, and I basically took the year off playing poker, excluding games with my friends.

The following summer, a friend of mine mentioned that he played poker online, and did fantasically well in it. He suggested that I give it a try, saying that everyone was a tool, and if I liked free money, I should try it. After watching the travel channel, I bought in for 100 bucks on UltimateBet and spend a saturday afternoon playing 1/2. The deck took out a sledgehammer and knocked me out, and I was up to 950 bucks or so when my girlfriend called and I was so excited, that I stopped playing and took her out to dinner.

The next night, I sat down and played some, and I lost about 100 bucks. I repeated that process for about 2 weeks until my entire buy-in was gone. I was embarrassed, but figured I could beat the game if I studied some. When I was a kid, I played very serious chess, and used to read chess books and magazines all the time (yeah, I was pimp with the ladies [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ) So I bought The Theory of Poker, and all of the sudden things started making sense.

Around September or so of 2003, I decided that I was ready to try this out again. I bought into PartyPoker this time, for 150 bucks, and decided to play no-limit. I was playing $25 tables, and was doing pretty well. After a week, I had ran very well and moved up to $50 tables with a $500 buck bankroll. Teaching had started, and it was my first year, so I was very busy, so I didn't get that many hours in, as I had to get up at 5:30am and wouldn't get home until around 6:30, when I would basically pass out, but I kept on running well against some utter morons, so I moved up the 100NL tables, with a bankroll of about 1200 bucks. It was at this point that I discover twoplustwo and read everything I could find by Ray Zee, El Diablo (who was Ulysses at the time, I believe), and Matt someone who always had stories from live situations in Vegas.

At winter break of that year, I started playing in a few $50SnGs. People were drunk, I was running well, and playing well too, but ran at a not-sustainable 42% ITM. I was too scared to play the 100SnGs, but was two-tabling 100NL at the time.

When PP introduced the shorthanded NL game I really started to improve, making 3.2BB/100 in 100NL game. My favorite moment was when I sat down at a table and someone got up, saying that I was too good play with [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I had tried out a few of the $200NL tables, but people seemed to know what they were doing, and I didn't win, so I was staying at the 100NL table (still 2 tabling, looking for my "buddies") until May, when I went to my brother's college graduation. By this point I had made a little over $8000, and was very happy as it had helped pay the bills. My brother asked he could watch me play, so I downloaded the client onto his computer. He didn't really know that much about poker, and asked me to explain the difference between NL and limit. At the time, I said that limit was more mathematical, and NL requires more of a feel, and is almost and an art. He said, "Jay, you went to MIT. Why don't you play the mathematical one?"

I pondered for a bit, and realized he might have a point. I started off playing 2 tables of 2/4 full. I ran at 2.4 BB/100 for 8000 hands, and figured that while nobody on twoplustwo thought it was a big sample size, I would move up. I ran at 2.5 BB/100 at 3/6 over 11000 hands.

During this time, I bought Hold em Poker for Advanced Players, and The Psychology of Poker, which I can summarize in three words: play tight aggressive. I also started reading Schneid's 60K in 60 Days quest, and most everything Gonores and Nate-The-Great posted, and basically everything else in the HUSH board. Since I had done so much better at the shorthanded NL game than in the full game, I decided to move up to the 5/10 6max.

This was in the end of June of 2004. The school year ended, and I decided to play poker as my summer job. I was a little embarrassed about this, but I decided to tell my parents. They were (surprisingly) amazingly supportive, saying that they were happy I could support myself financially while doing some type of morally good job.

I won 80 BB my first day of my summer job, and told my roommate that if I complained later in the summer, he should remind me of how I felt that first day. Which was a good thing, cuz I ran exactly even for the next two weeks, and then things started clicking. This was when PP was an absolute donkfest, and I made 2.7BB/100 playing 5/10 (3 tables). I kept on wanting to move up, but was losing 0.3BB/100 at 10/20 6max.

However, I decided to suck it up pay attention, played one table of 10/20 until I felt comfortable, and then really started raking it in. I made a seemingly unsustainable 2.6BB/100 at 10/20 sixmax over 48K hands, and finally decided to move up to 15/30, where "the big boys play"

My first encounters there went well, as I tightened up a tad, but still played somewhat of a "take advantage of the bad players style" and avoided the good players, yielding my 25.5%VPIP and 17.5% PFR. Those are probably a tad high, but it works for me at 15/30 to the tune of the 1.9BB/100, playing 3 or 4 tables.

I've kept this up throughout the year, and being a typical Jew, I've barely spent the money. When PP opened up 30/60 I lost 3.5K (over a miniscule 350 hands) and started reevaluating things. I read all of Bicyclekick's and Paluka's and other high-limit posts and realized I will never be as good as them.

I also realized that I didn't really like the hours I was putting in teaching, but wasn't sure of an alternative. I strongly believe that the online tables won't continue to be a donkfest, but I didn't have an alternative until I was talking to someone I knew peripherally at a party. They asked what I do, and I told them I teach. They (somewhat inappropriately) asked if I could support myself teaching, and I mentioned that I play poker seriously. This piqued their interest, and then they asked if they remembered correctly that I was a physics major. After hearing the affirmative, he told me he owned a hedge fund, and that physics majors and poker players are people that they look for. He offered me some part-time work, I tried it out, and they recently offered me a full-time position. When school is over on Tuesday (f'n snow days...) I will design trading systems for a hedge fund, with a *gasp* consistent and sustainable income stream, and will be done playing poker, having made it into the six figures.


*CONCLUSION*
I want to emphasize that is not a bragging post. I don't think I'm that good of a poker player. I know I get outplayed, there are many situations where I don't know what to do, and maybe I'm just a total luckbox. However, I think that people that read this board, make an effort to get better, and pay attention to what realistically works can make some very nice coin playing poker. My personal opinion, though, is that playing poker full-time is not something that people should attempt. Getting the hours in is difficult, it's tiring, there are no benefits, and people that can make a lot of money can also go into finance or business.

Good luck at the tables (even if it's not luck)
-jay

[arod4276]

Nice post buddy.. Im sure things will work out great for you...arod4276

[gomberg]

Congrats on the job. I work at a proprietary trading firm in Chicago designing automated trading systems as well (hedge fund with its own money - no ivestors). Everyone respects poker in the industry, which is nice - you'll still have time to play if you like. I play like 5-10 hours / week and an occasional tournament for fun. Good luck!

[Greg J]

Nice post. I enjoyed reading it.

But this:
[ QUOTE ]
A little later I had made a boat with something like JJ J9543 board, and got checkraised on the river. I was scared he might have the royal flush and only called.

[/ QUOTE ]
had me thinking you were trolling at first. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Good luck at yr new job. Will you be playing at all just for fun?

[ggbman]

Just wanted to say that i liked your post, and while i'm sure that while i don't know BK or Pauluka, they would back me up in saying that at some point they read posts of people who they thought they would never be as good as. It sounds like you have had a lot of sucess everywhere you have played, so don't chalk it all up to luck. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[DeadMoneyOC]

Cool story. Why are you not playing poker anymore though?

[Lucky]

You're making over 100 dollars an hours, and you're quitting???

Do you not desire the extra 100k/yr. your part time job (poker will bring)? Do you now hate the game? Or is there something you're not telling?